The present invention relates to the wet-treating of materials, and more particularly to a novel apparatus for carrying out the wet-treating of materials. There are many instances in which a material must be wet-treated, that is contacted with a treating liquid. For instance, there are materials that must be contacted with a bleaching liquid, there are materials which must be subjected to contact with a liquid for pre-treatment or post-treatment purposes, or materials --such as textile materials --which must be contacted with liquid dyestuff or the like. The present invention is particularly advantageous in the context of the dyeing of textile materials, and will be described with reference thereto, but should be understood to be suitable for all other liquid-treatment applications also.
It is the conventional practice in wet-treating of materials to use liquid media, usually aqueous solutions or dispersions, but sometimes other liquids such as alcohol or halogenated hydrocarbons. In any event, the liquid required, be it water, alcohol, halogenated hydrocarbons or the like, is needed in prodigious quantities and this results both in a wase of resources and --since the spent liquid will eventually be discharged to the environs-- in ecological contamination.